Devan (film)

Devan is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Arun Pandian making his debut as director. The film stars himself in the title role being his 50th project as actor with Meena and Kausalya, while Vivek and Malayalam actor Sai Kumar play supporting roles. Actors Vijayakanth, Karthik and Senthil appear in guest appearances. Sai Kumar had made his Tamil debut with this film. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The film was released on 14 June 2002.

Plot
The movie opens with Alex Devan murdering photographer Jeeva in cold blood in the latter's house. Jeeva strategically positions a video camera to capture the impending murder, but Devan's face is not captured on it. Jeeva shouts out the name of his killer before dying, but the audio is lost at that point.

While the police search for the killer, Devan zeroes in on Chetta Raghu as his next target. He follows Chetta to Chandigarh but is apprehended by CBI officer Rathnavel. Rathnavel is a tasked with bringing down hoarders and black marketers of India's staple grains. Once Rathnavel realises that Chetta is a mastermind of the hoarding operation, he begins to help Devan, even hiring successful lawyer Chakravarthy to fight for him.

The flashback shows that Devan's sister Jacqueline was killed by Chetta. Earlier, Chetta and Devan were friends, but Chetta stalks and harasses Jacqueline. He peeps on her when she is bathing, and when she finds out about it, she slaps him in public. Chetta decides to take revenge. On Jacqueline's wedding day, he drugs her and sends her to church in the bridal costume with no dress underneath. Chetta then grabs her costume from the car, thus rendering her completely naked in public. He then shoots her and her groom. Devan is framed for the crime and wants to avenge his sister's death.

In the end, Chetta is killed.

Production
The film was Arun Pandian's 50th film as actor and debut film as director. The climax scene was shot in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, at the harbour, where underwater sequences were shot, using helicopters and ships, 3000 tractors, 50 buses, and 200 camels. Says Arun Pandian, "It's a story that I penned about 10 years back. Earlier when I casually talked to Vijayakanth about my intention of directing a film he had said that he would definitely act whenever I directed it. I reminded him of it and he promptly agreed. He was confident and didn't have any apprehension that I being the actor-director would give more footage to myself!". Vijayakanth made a special appearance, and charged no remuneration for doing so.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack and background score were composed by music director Ilaiyaraaja.

Release and reception
A reviewer wrote:"An interesting screenplay, with suspense, action, vendetta and patriotism weaved in, the male characters are well-etched, and the female characters given just enough scope to justify their presence in the film. Only that the film is a bit too lengthy and could have been trimmed a little". Chennaionline.com wrote "‘Devan’ is an impressive debut by actor-turned-director Arun Pandian".

The film was dubbed in Telugu as Mass with Srihari replacing Karthik.